nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more. tracy, good morning. >> lynn, good morning. traditionally labor day has been the day we celebrate american workers of the problem is, a lot of them, millions of them, are not working. president obama will deliver an increasingly difficult message urging them to hang on. this afternoon president obama spends labor day with union leaders in milwaukee. union leaders say what has traditionally been a day of celebration has become a day of frustration for many. >> 11 million people out of work, i have less to be thankful for than those on wall street doing quite well. >> reporter: unemployment creeped up to 9.6%. jobs are being created but not nearly fast enough to ploy the millions left jobless in this recession. today and in cleveland on wednesday, the president will talk about the slow recovery and urge congress to approve $100 billion in tax breaks for small businesses. >> that's really what the bottom line is, small businesses are the engine of growth. government doesn't create the jobs. all we do is help train people for those